Cis-regulatory divergence and mate recognition among cricket sister spp.

Species recognition systems often evolve rapidly and act as strong reproductive barriers between closely related species. Despite their importance in speciation, the mechanisms underlying their evolution remain poorly understood. In crickets, divergence in acoustic mate recognition between the sister species Teleogryllus oceanicus and T. commodus is thought to have contributed to their reproductive isolation. However, the genomic basis of these differences is largely unknown. Here, we investigate the role of regulatory divergence in shaping acoustic mate recognition by integrating allele-specific RNA-seq expression with whole-genome resequencing data from both species.